Mahmudullah finds positives in batting amid series loss

Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah Riyad was elated the way they batted in the second T20 game despite conceding a 28-run defeat that cost them the three-match series too. The Tigers were whitewashed in three-match ODI series earlier. They will play the last and tour ending third T20 against New Zealand on April 1 and if they loss that match, they will remain win-less at Black Caps ground once again.

But Mahmudullah believes Bangladesh could come back strongly in the final match if they can take the positives from the batting. “As a batting unit we can take some positives in this game and come back strong,” he said after the match.

Bangladesh was restricted to 142-7 in the chase of revised target of 171 in 16 overs after the Kiwis put up 173-5 in 17.5 overs in a rain-affected game.

Bangladesh’s target was revised actually thrice-first time they were given 148-run target in 16 overs, then after playing two overs, they found that the revised target was set 170 and after some overs they came to know that the target was 171 in 16 overs.

That created confusion but Soumya Sarkar kept Bangladesh in the game with big-hitting prowess. He blasted a 27 ball-51 and added 81 off 49 with Naim Sheikh to keep the asking run rate under control and gave Bangladesh a glimmer of hope to win the game.

But his dismissal ushered the capitulation of the run-chase as Kiwis bowlers came back strongly to win the game.

“I think there was a bit of confusion because we didn’t know what the DLS score was, it kept changing on the scoreboard. It can happen in the game,” Mahmudullah said.

“First five overs we were on track but we didn’t finish well enough. Naim and Soumya batted really well. We didn’t capitalize on the balls we missed. There are some chances that we need to capitalize and we might get a win. Taskin took a brilliant catch that gave us the confidence. In T20

sometimes you get a good start, sometimes you don’t. But both batting and bowling, you must finish well,” he concluded.